Boston Bronze & Stone Speak To Us is a unique and beautiful book that combines art, history, and walking guides for the public sculpture found in eighteen Boston locales.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Gandhi sculpture revisited Boston Ma

—I have copied this news article to illustrate just how important our Boston Public Art and sculpture mean to our Boston citizens and ideals. Boston Public Art is always interacting and alive with our great city!

For nine weeks, a replica of the Gandhi statue belonging to the Peace Abbey in Sherborn joined hundreds of protesters at the Occupy Boston camp in Dewey Square. While there, it offered the protesters a source of unity, and several stood to protect it as the clock struck midnight on Thursday night, many ready to be arrested during the anticipated police raid that never happened.

It was on Friday night when the police closed down the camp.

The statue moved all around the camp in its final night of occupation, standing at times along Atlantic Avenue at the front of the camp and by the media tent.

“It’s been a rallying point of solidarity,” college student Danny Foster said. “It lets people know we’re peaceful.”

Peace Abbey founder Lewis Randa accompanied the fiberglass Gandhi along with his two sons and others from the Abbey through the early-morning hours after the eviction order took effect.

They decided to leave it at the camp for one more night, and its whereabouts were unknown for a while Friday, though it became clear that protesters took it to protect it.

“It turned up in the hands of people that love that statue,” Randa said.

The statue has since returned to Sherborn, where it will be refurbished.

The Peace Abbey offered the statue to Occupy Boston in solidarity with its nonviolent message.

While Randa and those who accompanied him weren’t planning to get arrested, a number of those who stood with arms-linked claimed that they were.

“It’s a powerful experience to risk incarceration over an idea,” Randa said.

Before it became clear that the police wouldn’t raid the camp Thursday night, Randa reminded the crowd, “Don’t try to protect [the statue] using anything other than nonviolence,” he said.

The statue served as a focal point for the protesters, according to Dan Dick, a longtime volunteer at the Peace Abbey. Dick, the Randas and Esther Brandon, an intern at the Abbey, arrived at the camp at 11:30 that night to look after the statue.

“I just want to be sure that he’s safe,” Dick said.

Although Randa made six visits to the protest over its lifespan, the Gandhi statue remained there at all times, unsupervised by the Peace Abbey.

“Lewis has a tremendous amount of faith,” Dick said. “[He has] an ungodly amount of trust.”

The statue did incur some damage, including the temporary misplacement of Gandhi’s eyeglasses and a broken thumb. However, someone at the camp bandaged the broken piece and even painted it to blend in with the rest of the statue’s hand.

At one point during the occupation, Gandhi’s likeness was used to block the entrance to the nearby Goldman Sachs offices, which Randa said was a more appropriate place for the protests.

“The issue is not with Boston or Mayor Menino,” Randa said.

The original Gandhi statue rests permanently on the Peace Abbey’s Sherborn lawn. The version that was occupying Dewey Square was guarded by dozens of protesters, many of whom weren’t familiar with Randa or the Peace Abbey, which needs to sell some of its property due to financial difficulty.

Although Dick wore a large fanny pack stuffed with informational materials about the Abbey for those who were interested, the goal was not to divert attention away from Occupy Boston’s message.

“Everyone has a right to be here,” Randa said. “It’s no concern of ours about getting a following.”

Randa founded the Peace Abbey based on his experience as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War. His experience with Occupy Boston was, “as powerful as anything I experienced in the ’60s,” he said.

The Gandhi statue served as a 9-foot reminder to the protesters, and a gift to everyone involved.

“It was a gift to Occupy Boston, to that statue and to the Peace Abbey,” Randa said. “It did nothing but remind them of the importance of nonviolence.”

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About The Author

Joseph R. Gallo Jr. is not a historian nor a sculptor. He is a student and great appreciator of both academic fields.
Trained as an educator and being an entrepreneur, he felt a need to reach out to the thousands of visitors who come to our historical city teaching them through this guidebook the purpose and reason why such beautiful works of art embellish our fair City of Boston.
Compiling updated photos and historical text for the resurrection of a much needed simple-to-use guidebook
Boston Bronze and Stone Speaks To Us was time consuming, but fulfilling. The purpose and meaning of these monuments is made more lucid with the structuring of this new book.

About the Book

Boston Bronze & Stone Speak To Us is a unique and beautiful book that combines art, history, and walking guides for the public sculpture found in eighteen Boston locales. Written by Joseph R. Gallo, Jr., who states that he is not an historian but a lover of the City of Boston, the book combines his original photographs and observations with well-referenced sources and maps for a complete experience of enjoying Boston sculpture. With hundreds of full-color photographs in all, each chapter offers a map of that area with stars and page numbers marking each work discussed. The chapters include the Boston Common, the State House inside and out, Beacon Hill and Louisburg Square, the Boston Public Gardens, the Esplanade and Hatch Shell, the Fenway, Chinatown and the Theater District, Copley Square, Park Square, the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, School Street and the Old City hall, King's Chapel, Downtown and the Financial District, Government Center, Quincy Marketplace and Faneuil Hall, the North End, and the Waterfront.
The book also includes and Index of Monuments and an Index of the Sculptors. Boston is home to some of the most extraordinary public art in North America. Sculptors of public art include Daniel Chester French, Katherine Lane Weems, August Saint-Gaudens and George Aarons. This lovingly produced book introduces readers to the artists, the subjects of their work, and the accessibility of exceptional art all within the city of Boston.